What’s your locum tenens “why?”
Staffing giant CompHealth says the secret to the perfect locum tenens assignment is to start with your “why.” Are you looking for a change of pace, or do you have a specific goal in mind, like paying off student debt? Once you define your “why,” it will be easier to decide how much you want to work, where you want to go, and which staffing agency fits your needs.
Also in CME 51: Best practices for making your resume stand out when submitted to applicant tracking systems, demand for locums with remote experience surges as telehealth becomes more prevalent, The New York Times explores what the division of labor should be between physicians and AI, and much more.
Continue your locums education with Locums CME 51 below.
Unlock Success in Locums: Your Ultimate Guide to Planning, Preparing, and Reflecting
February 13, 2025 | CompHealth
Whether you are exploring becoming a locums provider or thinking about your next locums assignment, it’s essential that you proactively consider what will make you most successful. A locums assignment is not the same as staff hospital jobs you’re familiar with. The earlier you have clarity around that, the more you’ll be able to maximize the benefits of your locum assignments and build a rewarding career path.
Plan to Be a Successful Locums
- Define why you’re interested in locums or what you’re looking for in a locums assignment. Are you interested in an overall change of pace, or do you have a specific goal (such as paying off student debt or exploring another part of the country before you move there)? Remember that what you’re looking for in an assignment can—and will—change over time.
- Understand what you expect from this career or a specific assignment. Consider your preferred schedule, including if you’re OK being on call and what kind of caseload you want. How does this “what” align with the “why” you defined for yourself earlier?
- Find who can help you. At the beginning, that primarily means your locums recruiter. Most locums work with an agency, and there are many to choose from. This is your moment in the interviewer’s seat. Talk with a few agencies, and then a couple recruiters at your top one or two agencies. You want a support team with a communication style and personality in alignment with yours and who has your best interests at heart. Even if an assignment unfolds without a hitch, you’ll be in touch with your recruiter regularly so they’re always up to speed (and so they’re on the lookout for the next great assignment).
Prepare for Your Assignment
- Settle your home life. Make sure all the people you care about have what they need while you’re gone and all your daily responsibilities are accounted for.
- Smooth the transition to your new environment. Arrive in the new town a day or two before the assignment begins to familiarize yourself with the new area. Bring paper copies or download important documents in case cell service is spotty.
- Verify logistics with your recruiter. Discuss administrative, tech, travel, and lodging details. Confirm how to reach your recruiter after hours. And ask your recruiter what questions you’ve forgotten—their expertise will guide you through what you don’t know to ask.
Start Your Assignment on the Right Foot
- Contact your recruiter and your on-site contact to let them know you’ve arrived, ensure all paperwork is complete, and ask if there are any updates before your first day.
- Give them ways to contact you other than your cell phone in case your service is less reliable in this area.
- Prepare to learn a lot on the first day. You may go through an onboarding routine, or you may need to ask questions to orient yourself. Keep handy something to write with: instructions, directions, follow-up questions, and of course, the names of the new colleagues you’ll be meeting.
End Your Assignment on the Right Foot
- Get final timesheets signed.
- Leave plenty of time to say goodbye and exchange contact information if you want to stay in direct touch with any new members of your professional network.
Follow-up and Reflect
- Let your recruiter know you arrived home and set up a debrief meeting.
- Send thank-yous to the team at your assignment.
- Reflect on what was successful and what wasn’t. Use that information to assess your needs and process.
Optimize Your CV for Applicant Tracking Systems
February 3, 2025 | Winston Resources
Locum recruiters are skilled relationship builders—they know their candidates inside and out. They also use tools like applicant tracking systems (ATS) to quickly spot which providers might be a good fit for an assignment, and facilities do the same. Getting in front of the best jobs requires understanding how the algorithms interpret your resume when you first apply and making it easy for the recruiter to read your resume when it gets through the system.
You can help your resume stand out by addressing the following:
- Simplify the layout. Automated tools understand straightforward, well-organized text.
- Choose a standard font like Arial or Times New Roman.
- Use clear headers like “Skills,” “Work Experience,” and “Education.”
- Use consistent formatting; for example, the bullet points in your education section should look like those in your job chronology.
- Detail accomplishments. Give concrete examples of specific actions you’ve taken, successes you’ve led, and positive impacts you’ve had.
- Use role-specific keywords. ATS searches healthcare resumes for commonly used terms such as “patient care,” “medical documentation,” and “laboratory procedures.” Use industry-specific phrases over their generic counterparts whenever possible.
- Incorporate technical capabilities. Proficiency in EHRs, healthcare AI, and other technology is increasingly important. Be sure to reference certificates, workshops, and courses, and experience with different tools and systems.
Locum Psychiatrists Key to Addressing Mental Health Crisis Amid Physician Shortage
February 3, 2025 | Medscape
Locum psychiatrists have a significant opportunity to fill mental health needs nationwide as patient demand rises while physician supply dwindles. Before the pandemic, one in five Americans met the criteria for a mental health condition; now, as many as one in three may. Yet the number of psychiatrists treating adults is expected to decrease another 20% over the next five years. With the flexibility that locum assignments offer, psychiatrists can continue to meet their personal and professional goals while helping facilities provide quality patient care.
To take the longer view, positive news can be found at the medical school level. Psychiatric residency programs have ballooned from under 200 in 2003 to more than 2,000 in 2023, and psychiatrists’ match numbers continue to increase.
However, currently, the average age of the psychiatrist pool is 55. Many will retire even as some begin their careers. Psychiatrists considering retiring may be open to seeing patients as locums, allowing them to set their schedule and location of practice.
- Work fewer hours than they do in a permanent role while substantially impacting patient access to care.
- Relocate to their planned retirement spot and accept assignments there and via telehealth.
Locum psychiatrists at any stage of their careers can make a big difference by filling coverage gaps, especially in rural and other underserved areas, and helping to reduce the workload of those in permanent positions.
Telehealth Surge Increases Demand for Locum Physicians and APPs with Remote Expertise
February 3, 2025 | Health Leaders Media
If you are licensed in multiple states, you are a great candidate for telehealth roles, which can be an efficient way to “travel” and add assignments without leaving home. As the reliance on telemedicine intensifies, locums with this experience and skill will be ever more in demand.
The percentage of hospitals using telehealth was significant before the pandemic, around 70% in 2018. Four years later, even after many in-person services had reopened, that number was nearly 90%. In a single quarter of 2023, almost 13% of Medicare patients alone received a telemedicine service.
For remote communities, telemedicine may be revolutionary. About a third of all rural hospitals are in danger of closing due to a shortage of physicians and funds; 20% of the country’s rural population already live in counties without a single hospital. This lack of access is particularly deadly when it comes to time-sensitive, complex conditions; for example, cancer mortality rates are 2% in urban communities and 15% in rural ones. Those numbers could improve if a physician could see a patient from anywhere.
One challenge remains—technological connectivity. While audio-only Medicare telehealth access has increased, there are still limitations since it does not require a personal computer or smartphone. More than 20% of rural Americans lack access to the quality of internet needed for a video-based appointment. At a healthcare organization level, traditionally siloed services mean each hospital must work to succeed on its own. A push to bring high-speed internet to remote areas and hub-and-spoke telemedicine platforms that allow facilities to share resources would mitigate these issues. You will be ready to meet this growing need by positioning yourself to work in telehealth.
Building Lasting Connections: Networking Tips for Locum Professionals
January 31, 2025 | TheraEx Locums
A locums assignment may be temporary, but the connections you make can positively impact the rest of your career. Follow these steps to grow your professional circle with each assignment:
- Go in with a networking mindset. Be proactive in getting to know colleagues and connecting with the community.
- Offer value. Also from the beginning, offer your support, make recommendations, and introduce new colleagues to people in your wider healthcare network.
- Start with your team. Show genuine interest in the duties and lives of the physicians, nurses, and staff you work with daily.
- Attend facility events. Put seminars, workshops, and social gatherings on your calendar.
- Seek a mentor or become one. Identify one or two people you can connect with on a deeper level.
- Participate in related groups. Volunteer in your new community, such as with the local chapter of your specialty’s professional organization or nonprofits with wellness-related missions.
- Follow up. Connect online with new colleagues so you stay current with what they’re up to and vice versa. When you read an article that makes you think of someone from a past assignment, share it with them. If you sign up for a national conference, ask others if they’ll attend and arrange to meet up. Invite past colleagues to let you know if they’re ever in your hometown and reach out to them when you’re back in theirs.
Rural Healthcare Leaders Optimistic, Opening Doors for Locums
February 4, 2025 | Fierce Healthcare
Though rural healthcare is chronically under-resourced, healthcare leaders are hopeful. Nearly all rural care organizations—predominantly critical access hospitals—responding to a survey in late 2024 said they were optimistic about their facility’s finances. Most said their outlook is improving, with 40% reporting their financial stability was higher than in 2023 and nearly 60% saying it was better than the period immediately before the pandemic. Almost 80% said they were not considering a merger or consolidation.
This optimism, coupled with the ongoing need for physicians and APPs, implies that there will continue to be opportunities for locums to have a significant impact in rural communities while expanding their experience and skillset in an area where they may be the only providers in that specialty.
Physician Wellness Retreat
Realign Your Focus to Find the Right Locums Position
February 3, 2025 | Protean Med
As a locum, you will likely align much of your work life with your goals. You’ve chosen a career that puts you in the driver’s seat regarding workplace environment, location, and schedule. Still, it’s good to focus on your purpose so that you can thoughtfully consider each assignment presented to you: Is this one the right one in this moment, or would a stronger choice be to wait for the next option? Can you articulate what does and does not appeal to you to help guide your recruiter in finding the next great assignment? Prepare yourself to ask and answer these questions with the following steps:
- Train your mind as you do any other muscle. Engage in daily habits that help you self-reflect, set goals, and build understanding and resilience.
- Remove friction. Make sure you have the space to think clearly by reducing distractions, setting a clear plan, and doing what you can to make it easier to follow through.
- Surround yourself with a good team. Ask for support from encouraging and uplifting individuals whose values align with yours, and offer support in return.
Survey Reveals Utilization Management as Contributing Cause of Physician Burnout
February 4, 2025 | Healthcare Innovation
According to a national survey published in The American Journal of Managed Care, insurance red tape must be addressed as a solution to physician burnout. While prior authorization, step therapy, and nonmedical switching all play roles in this, one burden weighs heavier than the others: Almost all responding physicians said that utilization management and patient care decisions intended to lower healthcare costs contributed to their poor well-being.
Maximizing the Locum Tenens Experience: Key Considerations for Success and Balance
January/February 2025 | Emergency Medicine News
There are many benefits to a career as a locums: making a big difference in patient lives, competitive compensation, and exploration and adventure, to name a few. Understand the nuances surrounding those benefits so you can make the most of these opportunities:
- Home life must be paramount. If you have a partner, children, pets, or a close community, thoughtfully and carefully assess being away from them, and regularly reassess. Locum tenens allows for substantial breaks from work, but a lot of life happens during the 24/7 time spent away on assignments. Make a plan with concrete actions to keep yourself connected to home even when you’re away.
- Seek financial assistance. The locums lifestyle can mean irregularly spaced paychecks of different amounts, and it can make sense to have help with budgeting. Finding a tax professional who understands the nuances of working locums is also a good idea.
- Before accepting the assignment, talk with your agency about the facility’s work culture. Preparation and reasonable expectations can help you succeed from day one. Agency support to ensure a good fit between a provider and each assignment means the experiences are more likely to be positive.
By carefully considering these aspects, you’ll make the most of your assignments while maintaining a healthy personal life.
Doctor’s Notes
Women Physicians Transforming Healthcare Culture
February 3, 2025 | Hayes Locums
Across specialties, the number of women physicians is growing, which can contribute significantly to the workplace culture.
- Women are nearly 40% of the physician workforce.
- They became the majority of US medical school students in 2019.
- Women are the majority of physicians in pediatrics (nearly 70%), OB/GYN (over 60%), and dermatology (more than 50%). They are approaching the 50% mark in pathology and psychiatry.
- Even in specialties that have almost entirely been men’s, women are expanding their influence—for example, they make up nearly 30% of radiologists.
As physician leaders and administrators, many women are championing collaborative care models, reshaping wellness policies, and reimagining the workplace to center both physicians’ and patients’ success and well-being. When reenvisioned sustainable staffing strategies, many innovative leaders consider locums front and center in their efforts for balanced, financially viable workplaces.
Physicians and AI: A Division of Labor
February 2, 2025 | New York Times
Though the expansion of technology in healthcare has been rapid and pervasive across departments and roles, AI remains a medical tool. It is one of many available to physicians and is most successful when incorporated thoughtfully into the workday.
For example, in one study when AI replaced the physician in direct communication with the patient, AI’s diagnostic accuracy sunk from over 80% to just over 60%. However, physicians who are too cautious about AI’s limitations and undervaluing AI’s capabilities may inadvertently cause inefficiencies and even errors. In another study of human-AI collaboration, AI analyzing data on its own achieved more than 90% diagnostic accuracy; when physicians inserted their judgment too early in the analysis process, there was 76% accuracy. This leads researchers to suggest that physicians consider when to bring AI into a patient’s case.
They may work together but on separate tasks:
- A physician opens a case with a patient interview and physical examination.
- AI applies pattern recognition to analyze the gathered information and present possible diagnoses.
- The physician then uses their clinical judgment and knowledge of the patient to prepare a treatment plan.
In another situation, AI handles routine or preventative actions such as reviewing regular chest X-rays and low-risk mammograms, leaving physicians more space to work on complex or atypical conditions. This might be of extra use in underserved areas where AI could perform screenings and triage while limited human resources focus on more serious matters.
AI in Rheumatology: Study Reveals Performance Gaps, Highlighting Risks in Clinical Use
January 27, 2025 | Medscape
Research around AI highlights significant performance differences across tools, indicating the need for heightened awareness of the nuances of potential risks in clinical settings.
In one study focused on rheumatology, researchers asked three AI tools—Gemini Advanced, Claude 3 Opus, and ChatGPT-4—questions from the American College of Rheumatology question bank. Board-certified rheumatologists evaluated the answers’ accuracy, quality, and safety.
ChatGPT performed almost the same when answering text-only questions (78% accuracy) and those that included images (80% accuracy). Interestingly, the distinction was much more significant for the other two models: Claude 3 Opus answered the text-only questions with 63% accuracy, but those with images at 80%. The difference in Gemini Advanced’s answers was just as stark, as it had a 53% accuracy rate for text-only questions and 30% for those with images.
Takeaways may include the importance of:
- More specialty-specific research
- Further evaluation of AI’s understanding and interpretation of text versus images
- Education of physicians and patients on how AI can produce convincing but potentially damaging answers
- Continuous evaluation once the model is in place in a facility
- Thoughtful processes and policies around the human-AI division of labor
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners Celebrate 25 Years of Expanding Mental Health Care
February 7, 2025 | Psychiatric Times
The role of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) is celebrating its 25th year. Clinical nurse specialists have worked in psychiatry since the 1970s. Still, with the evolution of the PMHNP, they have been able to offer psychiatric care across settings in multiple states, both with psychiatrist supervision and more independently. This is particularly important during the physician shortage and with the uptick in the number of patients requiring mental health services.
2024 Hospitalist Compensation Survey Finds Increase of 3%
February 2025 | Today’s Hospitalist
The results of the 2024 Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Surveys have been released. Takeaways include:
- The mean compensation for hospitalists jumped nearly 3% from 2023 to 2024.
- The more patients a hospitalist sees in a shift or the more shifts worked, the higher the pay—and the lower their career satisfaction.
- Nearly half of hospitalists are paid a combination of salary and bonuses based on productivity and patient satisfaction. Geography, specialty, and experience also affect bonuses.
Sponsored Content
Keep More of Your Earnings at Tax Time
February 17, 2025 | The Doctor’s CPA
Paying taxes is a nearly universal stressor. It may be especially so for locum physicians and APPs. As independent contractors, often working in multiple states, you must report your own earnings and deductions. To help smooth the tax journey, The Doctor’s CPA has created an informative guide of actionable strategies around key concepts and tasks:
- Understand 1099 versus W-2 tax classifications.
- Stay organized with recordkeeping best practices.
- Maximize savings by deducting job-related expenses.
- Check the filing requirements for each of the states you worked in.
- Plan now for next year’s taxes.
It’s wise to have a handle on your taxes, but many locums also work with a CPA knowledgeable in the tax concerns of healthcare professionals. Organize yourself and seek professional support as needed, and you’ll be set up for success with this critical part of being a locums.
Emergency Medicine Physician Salaries See Upward Trend
March 4, 2025 | OnCall Solutions
As of February 2025, emergency medicine (EM) physicians’ average annual salaries have increased, reflecting ongoing changes in the healthcare industry. According to data from Salary.com, the typical annual wage for an EM physician is $374,300, with most earning between $266,360 and $461,225. This marks an increase from 2024, when the average salary ranged from $265,000 to $372,400, depending on location, education, experience, and facility setting.
The rise in salaries is attributed to increased demand for emergency care, physician shortages, and inflation. Additionally, locum tenens positions have become more prevalent, offering EM physicians higher earning potential and greater flexibility. In 2024, full-time locum tenens EM physicians earned an average of $421,200 annually, compared to $353,000 for permanent positions.
